FTR, what I'm running is a 32-bit Firefox installation, with 25 mostly tiny run-on-demand extensions (none of which where added after the last five iterations of Firefox update), with less than 100 open tabs (which are further set to only load when I turn to them); meanwhile Firefox has grown from a staggering 600-700MB memory footprint for a dozen tabs to the present figure that is apparently so impressive.

And this isn't the first time I witnessed Firefox gobbling memory like there's no tomorrow, until it becomes completely unresponsive on my SSD based i7 system; I have put up with it because I really appreciate its features and customizations, that being the major reason why I have been using it for almost ten years now, and also because no alternative program ever came close to match it.

I now have a pretty good feeling SeaMonkey might just cut it, hence my scribbling here, OK? So please bear with me...

Talking about which, I was already running a few essential extensions (16 on the latest count, you can even see three of its icons in the status bar) when I captured the screenshots included in that post of mine that now lies buried in fluff; but something absolutely needs to be added concerning one of the extensions mentioned there...

As I explained, I used one of existing SeaMonkey icon files provided by the PAF package to customize Tiny Menu; thing is, if you just point at it from Tiny Menu options, that particular aspect of the setup will become non-portable.

To solve this, you'll have to edit the 'pref.js' file in your profile folder to find the line starting with 'user_pref("tinymenu.allMenus"...' and change the part that reads something like "file:///<DRIVELETTER>:/<PATH>/SeaMonkeyPortable/App/AppInfo/appicon_32.png" to "chrome://tinymenu/skin/appicon_32.png", after copying said file to the 'extensions\tinymenu\skin' sub-folder inside your profile location (and don't forget to close SeaMonkey while you do this).

Midas wrote:Gee, guys, thank you for the help with setting up SeaMonkey -- I'm overwhelmed by all the appreciation I got for the thoroughly researched 9 other paragraphs of my post.

Well, I thought that responding to your post would have been even worse.

Midas wrote:
Moreover, I have no need for a full program suite -- with mail and chat clients and HTML editor -- so I immediately started tweaking the PortableApps version to make it more amenable to my taste (you can judge the results by the screenshot below).

Meanwhile I want the full program suite: the email client and feed reader were the most important reason why I chose SeaMonkey in the first place. This alone means that your information about customizations isn't very useful to me.

I don't care about the things Sea Fox does. I prefer SeaMonkey default behavior in general. (There are some individual things I have changed manually: for example, I have set the tab bar to be visible also if I have only one tab open.)

SYSTEM wrote:There should be no way for SeaMonkey to be notably lighter than Firefox because both browsers use the Gecko engine.

In my unscientific tests, SeaMonkey is lighter than Firefox (but not by that much) due to SeaMonkey not using Australis and uses probably an older version of XUL due to its outdated UI, which helps memory-wise.

The outdated UI is the main reason stopping me from using SeaMonkey full-time. That and extension-compatibility support. PS - This tool will help you a lot:http://addonconverter.fotokraina.com/

SYSTEM wrote:Meanwhile I want the full program suite: the email client and feed reader were the most important reason why I chose SeaMonkey in the first place. This alone means that your information about customizations isn't very useful to me.

SYSTEM wrote:Likewise, I think there is nothing wrong with a traditional menu bar.

Ditto. Unless you're hard pressed for vertical screen real estates as I often am -- then I'd rather have an extra text line than a mostly unused menu bar...

SYSTEM wrote:As you can see, this isn't exactly constructive. I didn't want to send a reply like that.

On the contrary, as the first long time user to come forward, the authority of your experience is highly valued.

freakazoid wrote:In my unscientific tests, SeaMonkey is lighter than Firefox (but not by that much) due to SeaMonkey not using Australis and uses probably an older version of XUL due to its outdated UI, which helps memory-wise.

Your opinion is aligned with my first impressions, too.

freakazoid wrote:The outdated UI is the main reason stopping me from using SeaMonkey full-time. That and extension-compatibility support. PS - This tool will help you a lot:http://addonconverter.fotokraina.com/

Long time user of K-Meleon, too (v0.7 was my first, if memory serves me right) -- before I switched to Firefox (and related Mozilla based products like Pale Moon and Waterfox). The glacial pace of updating and the intensive tweaking required finally drove me off... but you can still find some of my meager contributions around the lizard forums.

For reference, K-Meleon 76 RC uses Gecko 38.8 and Pale Moon uses a fork of Gecko 20-something (not sure exactly what) with some upstream security fixes and some "improvements" (again, not sure what other than disabling Australis and some other things).

freakazoid wrote:Midas - You should switch out Scriptish for Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey should be compatible with the latest version of SeaMonkey, although you might have to force addon compatibility.

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the former was less memory demanding -- no biggie anyways, because in fact I run a single Pinterest related user script. But yeah, I prolly should, since Scriptish is no longer maintained...